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My younger son planned a trip to Egypt in the spring right after 9/11. I told him he was out of his freaking mind because of all of the dangers I thought he’d be exposing himself to over there. He told me I worry too much and that he’d be fine. He had met 2 Egyptian airlines stewardesses who invited him to stay with them in their country for a couple of weeks. I couldn’t change his mind no matter how hard I pleaded with him. If you knew this kid you would know that I couldn’t change his mind from the time he was about 8 months old so it was a losing cause. The day arrived for his departure and I drove him to the train that would take him to the airport for his trip to Egypt. I told him to call us as soon as he arrived over there and bade him goodbye.
Two days passed until he called to tell us he was fine so my wife and I stopped worrying.
On the 3rd day he called again to say he needed to stay at the hotel instead of the girls’ home and that he would need us to wire him some money to do so. I was confused because he’d given us the impression that the only thing he had to pay for was the plane fare, which was discounted because the girls were able to get him an employee rate. He explained that they’d had an argument and the girls told him they never wanted to see him again. I found out later that he’d given them some kind of bullshit line and had them believing he was wealthy. They thought they were going to freeload off of him while he thought the exact thing about them. Anyway it was too confusing but I wanted to kill him for screwing up, again, for the millionth time. Once more, if you had known this kid you would have known he was notorious for getting himself into jams, which I or my wife had to bail his ass out of.
I sent him the money and the rest of the week passed without any other incidents. On the day he came back I drove to the train station to pick him up. I was still pissed about having to send him money for a trip that was supposed to be free but didn’t say anything because I was relieved to see that he was able to go over there and come back without any major incident other than the problem with the 2 girls. On the way home he told me about his stay in Egypt and the things that happened after he’d broken off contact with the girls. It literally blew my mind! And, it made me completely forget about how much of a pain in the ass the kid was.
He said that he’d met an Egyptian cab driver named Hasid whom my son hired as his travel guide in the country for the remainder of his stay there. Hasid drove him all over the place, pointing out different interesting sites that most tourists are unaware of. My son and Hasid became good friends, sharing stories about their families. My son told me that he realized that there wasn’t really much difference between people over here and people in Egypt – their concerns and goals are the same. They care about their families and want them to prosper and be healthy. One day, while driving around, Hasid said he had to stop at the market place to pick up some food for his family. He had to feed a family of 6 kids, a wife, and a couple of other relatives who lived with them. My son accompanied him at the market and noticed that Hasid was taking great care to make sure to purchase only what was absolutely needed to feed his family without running out of money. My son managed to give Hasid some money without insulting him by saying it was the ‘bonus’ he was going to give him, on his last day there, for spending so much time showing him the sites of Egypt. Hasid finally accepted the money but insisted that my son go home with him for dinner. The kid accepted the invitation and visited with Hasid’s family until the wee hours of the following morning. He said they wouldn’t let him leave – they kept asking all kinds of questions about America. My son said that he found out the regular, ordinary folks over there love our country and the people who live here. It’s the government they have a problem with – no different than us over here, right?
The following day after they visited a couple of other sites, Hasid asked my son if he would like to accompany the Egyptian to a local café where some of his friends hung out. My son said okay so they went. They met with a few of Hasid friends – some of them spoke almost perfect English. For the next few hours they spoke, once more, about America. My son told me that their view was the same as those Hasid’s family shared with him the night before. One of them said, “Bush is an azzhole but we know that many of you Americans also think this, yes?” My son burst out laughing and replied “Yeah, especially my Dad – Bush actually makes him sick sometimes and he can’t even listen to him talk. Whenever he comes on the T.V. my father or mother immediately change the channel to another station.
After my son told me about how he had interacted with the people in Egypt I can’t tell you how proud I was of him. I mean, he went over there without a thought about anything except those 2 girls and wound up spreading MORE good will in his short time over there than any government program could have. He represented everything that is good about our country – without any of the governmental bullshit. He was an ambassador of good will and showed a few people, in another country, the real face of America.
I thought about my own experience with people from other countries and how similar it was with that of my son in Egypt. I realized, once more, that people really don’t ‘hate us for our freedom’ as the deluded decider likes to say. They only hate what this government has caused throughout the world. When you talk to people one on one, like my son did during his stay in Egypt, you find that there really aren’t that many differences between us. You also find that our government lies and distorts everything in order to push its own agenda throughout the world.
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